


The Nyma Situation

by bingbong21



Series: Let's Get This Show on the Road [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Boyband, Cuban Lance (Voltron), in which bingbong uses google translate because she doesn't know any spanish, in which keith quotes taken, some racism directed towards lance's fam, the boyband au no one asked for, why do i like making lance suffer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-02-16
Packaged: 2018-09-24 23:22:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9791687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bingbong21/pseuds/bingbong21
Summary: In retrospect, Lance realizes, following a beautiful blonde with pretty eyes might not have been his best plan. Especially when they know Zarkon would do anything to stop their efforts to save the Balmera.Takes place about a year after Auditions.





	

**Author's Note:**

> There are false accusations of sexual assault up ahead, so ya know...turn back if that's not your thing.

Lance sighed, tugging fruitlessly against the handcuffs that were currently keeping him chained to a wooden pole. He rested his head against it, trying to ignore the cool breeze blowing against his half-naked body. While this sounded like the start of a really great fantasy, and it had certainly started off that way, it turned into something else; poor Lance had no idea where it went wrong. Mentally, he ran through everything that happened in an attempt to pinpoint just where his night fell apart.

While doing a benefit concert tour to protect the Balmeran reservation of Hunk’s soon-to-be-but-not-yet girlfriend Shay, they stopped at some dive bar for dinner. There, they met the sinfully attractive blonde bombshell Nyma and her friend Rolo. As it turns out the two were huge fans of Voltron, or at least Nyma was a huge fan of Lance if the tight Blue Paladin t-shirt was anything to go by; Rolo mentioned that he was building some special effects thing called Beezer, which had garnered Pidge’s attention. Lance couldn’t really remember much about Rolo and his technical talk, given that he had been preoccupied with making Nyma laugh and causing her exotic purple eyes to sparkle. Against Hunk’s wishes they ate and drank with the two, as the previous incarnations of Voltron had always been very open to interacting with fans whenever. A little bit of food and drink later, and soon Nyma had grabbed Lance by the hand unnoticed and dragged him out of the bar.

Lance whined, tugging against his restraints, as the next part played out in very vivid detail. Nyma had lent up against this very post, coyly motioning for him to come closer. Like the love struck fool he was, he had placed his hands on her hips and gave her his best smoldering look; she had giggled and blushed _such_ a beautiful shade of red. Just as he leaned in to begin the smooching though she had spun him around, cuffs locking around his wrists and around the post. He had looked at her confused but still willing to participate as she began cutting him out of his clothing with a knife she pulled from her back pocket; after all, who was he to judge someone’s kinks? Then the next thing he knew Rolo was pulling up, and as he was beginning to wonder if he was really okay in doing a threesome with a dude, Nyma had hoped in his car and drove off into the metaphorical sunset. Leaving Lance chained to the tree alone, half-naked, in the dark.

_Who the hell **does** that? _

To top it all off, Lance’s phone was in the pocket of his ruined pants, meaning that he couldn’t contact the rest of the group. Internally he cried, hoping against hope that they would find him before asking a police search party to assist in finding him chained naked to a post. Lance already knew he wouldn’t hear the end of it from Keith or Pidge either way, but having random strangers finding him would definitely only add to his eternal embarrassment.

To his eternal relief, he heard the sweet sound of Shiro’s voice calling out his name in the distance. He shouted back, and soon the pounding sound of footsteps greeted his ears. He thanked every god that would listen, and even thanked the ones that wouldn’t. And then he heard Pidge and Keith snickering and instantly began cursing.

“I know we’re supposed to learn stuff about each other, but this is definitely too much information.”

“You can just shut it Keith,” Lance grumbled, hearing the smirk practically oozing out of Keith’s voice. He heard the click of a camera and began a panicked struggle.

“Are you seriously documenting this?” Lance cried out, looking over his shoulder as best as he could. Briefly he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of Pidge tapping away at her phone.

“Of course,” Pidge replied casually as if she were discussing the weather, “The fans need to know what a kinky nerd you are.”

“Okay if I was gonna talk about my kinks, this is _not_ how I would reveal them.” He heard his phone give a Twitter and Instagram notification. “Are you _serious_?”

“Then you shouldn’t run off to have sex with strangers.”

“That’s enough,” Shiro said, interrupting Lance’s thought process for a retort. Lance thanked what few lucky stars he had that his idol wasn’t a _complete_ asshole, unlike some people he knew. “Keith, pick the lock on the handcuffs so that we can get out of here.”

“You know how to do that?” Lance asked incredulously as Keith knelt down next to him. Keith shrugged, pulling out his multi-tool and a pin from seemingly out of nowhere and getting to work.

“Skill I just picked up.”

“Okay no,” Lance shook his head, “ _Sewing_ is something you just ‘pick up’. _Baking_ is something you just ‘pick up’. _Breaking out of handcuffs is not_.”

“Shiro, can’t we just leave his kinky ass here?” Keith called over his shoulder, ignoring Lance’s indignant squawk. “Stop squirming, that makes it take longer.”

“No, we can’t.”

“Thank you Shiro,” Lance called over his shoulder, looking down at Keith with a smug smirk; Keith rolled his eyes.

“Also,” Shiro continued, “Everyone needs to stop kinkshaming Lance. If we don’t accept everyone’s sexual differences, we can’t be a cohesive team.”

Lance slammed his head into the post, groaning in a mixture of pain and embarrassment as Pidge howled with laughter and Keith snorted beside him. He was certainly never going to hear the end of this.

* * *

 

The trip on the bus had started normally enough. Pidge had finally passed out sprawled in her bunk, all pillows encompassed by her short arms and a blanket wrapped around her legs to resembling a mermaid’s tail. Hunk was eating some of his travel snacks, watching as the world went by and talking with Coran as he brewed some tea; something about Balmeran crystals and how recently they’ve become a mainstream light refraction system. Shiro was sitting behind the driver’s seat where Allura sat, eyes closed and occasionally admonishing Allura when she muttered swears. Keith was busy running over his parts, having finally stopped pacing the bus; they learned rather quickly that the Red Paladin wasn’t fond of crowded and enclosed spaces. Lance had just opened his phone, ready to update his followers about life during their charity tour, only to find that he had been bombarded with a thousand different notifications.

Really, it had been relatively peaceful until Lance shrieked, causing the following chain reaction.

Allura swerved the bus, causing everyone to jerk violently as cars honked at her; Shiro’s head slammed into the wall, eyes flying open. Pidge jolted awake, swearing loudly as not only her head slammed into the bunk above her but as she also fell out of the bed. Coran swore as he spilled hot water on himself and Hunk, who’s head had bashed into the window. Keith had jumped about a foot into the air and was currently glaring heatedly at Lance; Hunk and Shiro shot Lance concerned gazes.

“What the fuck,” Keith shouted; Lance didn’t respond, body slightly trembling as he stared frozen at his screen. Shiro walked over, gently prying the phone from his hand and reading aloud what had caused the disturbance.

“‘The _Real_ Bad Boy of Voltron’”, Shiro muttered, eyebrow raised, “Lance McClain being accused of…sexual assault…?”

The tension in the room became thick as Shiro read on. “Victim Nyma claims that Lance McClain attempt for force himself on her; thanks to self-defense classes, Nyma was able to escape unscathed. Friend and eye witness Rolo states that he saw the attack right as Nyma escaped, with several patrons at the bar saying they saw McClain and Nyma interacting all night. A picture posted by band mate Pidge Gunderson seems to corroborate their story.”

“Shit,” Pidge breathed, eyes wide. It was then that Lance began to babble.

“I didn’t do anything!” Lance carded his fingers through his hair. “I mean, yeah I wanted to, but I didn’t force myself on her! I thought she was into it, into me! I mean…she was, wasn’t she?” Lance’s eyes widened impossibly further, panic creeping into his voice. “Oh God...wh-what if I read the entire thing wrong? What if she wasn’t into me? My God I really _did_ didn’t I?”

“Lance stop,” Shiro commanded, placing a hand on his shoulder; immediately Lance stopped, chest heaving. “You did nothing wrong, alright?”

Hunk nodded. “Yeah dude, I thought you were about to get a girlfriend!”

“I wouldn’t have made fun of you if I didn’t think she was into you,” Pidge supplied; Lance smiled weakly, sniffling.

“Th-Thanks guys…”

“What’s the situation look like Coran,” Shiro asked; as soon as Shiro had finished reading the blurb, Coran had pulled out of his phone and begun checking the state of the tour. Coran was frowning as he stared as his phone, worry lines creasing his forehead.

“Erm, not good I’m afraid.” Coran sighed, “I’ve gotten multiple forwarded messages asking if tickets are refundable, people talking about boycotting future events, and donations have stopped completely to the Balmera conservation effort.”

The bus’s horn giving a prolonged honk was the only indication of Allura’s displeasure. Shiro sighed as he glanced towards the driver’s seat; Lance chewed on his bottom lip.

“I have to talk about it,” Lance said finally. He continued as everyone began to speak out. “If I talk about it, maybe I can convince people that she’s lying! Or, or at the very least, that this is was all just one huge misunderstanding and I’m the sorriest I’ve ever been in my entire life!”

“We do need to release an official statement on the matter…” Coran muttered, stroking his mustache. “But, we should do it through the official channels rather than through your personal account.”

“But I’ll look even more guilty if I don’t say anything!”

“Lance is right,” Keith said; all eyes focused on him as it was the first he had spoken up. “If he stays quiet, it looks like he has nothing to say to defend himself. And while apologizing makes it look like he’s guilty of _something_ , it at least shows he’s remorseful for what happened.”

“Please Coran,” Lance begged, looking up at him. “Let me try to make this right.”

Coran met his gaze; it was apparent he was mentally going through every pro and con for each situation. Finally, he sighed, shoulders sagging with the weight of his decision. “Very well; defend yourself.”

* * *

 

After the initial discover Lance had launched himself into going on every social media site he had access to, proclaiming his innocence and announcing that he was sorry if he made Nyma feel uncomfortable at any point. Some fans bought it, especially when backed up by the other members of the band and their accounts of the night; a majority would send hateful messages about how terrible they all were for defending him. But while it had certainly slowed down, people began donating and buying tickets for their events again. For a little bit, everything felt like it had returned to normal for the most part; one night, however, sent everything into a different light.

Keith was walking up the stairwell of the hotel that Allura had budgeted for their tour. It wasn’t anything grand, but it was nicer than the bus and most roadside motels; it didn’t induce any feelings of claustrophobia, that was for sure. He was coming back from the workout room, itching for a hot shower before passing out in his bed. His daydream of steaming hot water and fluffy comforters though was punctured by the echo of Lance’s voice in the stairwell.

“¿Qué quieres decir con que alguien acosó a María en la escuela?” Lance shouted; it sounded like he was a few floors up. “¿Cómo saben dónde va, cómo se ve ella? …. ¿ _Saben dónde vives_?”

Keith flinched at the panic in Lance’s voice. “¿Alguien dijo qué a Mark? Mierda,” A crash could be heard followed by a hissed curse. “¿Por qué no me lo dijiste antes? … _Sí, me gustaría saber_! Él es mi hermano!”

A defeated sigh was heard; Keith could practically see the slump of Lance’s shoulders as he leaned against the concrete walls. “Está bien mamá, solo ... solo dime que algo así pasa.”

A sudden tenseness entered the air after he had said that. “¿Qué es?” He asked tentatively. Silence was heard, most likely an explanation from Lance’s mother. Suddenly a choked gasp was heard, as if Lance was forcing himself to stay composed. “A-Allie preguntó si era verdad, ¿eh? Y-Y le dijiste que no lo era, ¿no?”

A pause so powerful took hold; Lance repeated himself, desperation in his voice. “ _Mamá_!”

A whimper echoed in the stairwell. “M-Mamá… _Mamá_ …”

Keith backtracked out of the stairwell to allow Lance privacy to sob alone. As he stored down the hallway towards the elevator, everything had a red tinge; how _dare_ someone do this? Sure, Lance may have been obnoxious and sometimes downright petty, but he didn’t deserve this. Didn’t deserve his family being dragged into this mess caused by some…some fame hungry groupies whose idea of a fancy night out was a fucking _dive bar_ on the side of the interstate. In his blind rage, Keith hadn’t realized where he was until Pidge opened the door to her room; from within, he could hear the sounds of some dubstep or electronic house music that Pidge usually listened to when she was tinkering.

“What is it…?” She asked, caution evident in her voice; Keith was sure that he looked downright murderous in that moment.

“Can you track Rolo and Nyma down?”

Her eyebrows raised in surprise as she blinked owlishly up at him; he caught a glimpse of Hunk trying to discretely look at the door, soldering tool in hand. “I mean, without my equipment back home, it’ll be hard-”

“That’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking if you can.”

Slowly, a devious grin made its way onto her face as realization dawned on her. “Step into my office,” She replied, moving aside to let Keith in. He stalked inside the room, the door swinging shut behind them.

* * *

 

Rolo groaned, shutting the door with his foot as he dragged himself into the apartment. Nyma was sprawled on the too small couch, limbs hanging off the edge; Rolo grinned, the sight reminding him that with the next batch of money they were about to receive, they’d be able to afford a couch as big as a bed. His daydream of domestic luxury was cut short as his phone rang; grumbling, he dug it out of his pocket.

“Yeah,” He snapped, not in the mood to talk after having spent a sixteen-hour shift working in customer service.

“This is Keith Kogane, and we know where you live. If you confess to lying now, this will be the end of it. I will not look for you; I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I _will_ look for you, I will _find_ you and not only will I be taking your ass to court…” His voice dropped to a deadly whisper, “I’ll take your ass out to the God damn woods and _I will **kill** you_.”

* * *

 

The scream and curse words from the other end of the line shouldn’t have filled Keith with a deep sense of joy, but they did. Pidge and Hunk grinned beside him, clearly imagining the spectacle on the other end of the line.

_“Nyma, Nyma wake the **fuck** up! They know where we live!” _

“Best day ever.” Pidge said, leaning back in her chair.

_“Yes I’m serious, they’re on the phone right now!”_

“What about the day I called Allura a bitch to her face?”

“Ooh, that _is_ a pretty close second.”

“I can’t believe you basically quoted Taken,” Hunk said, looking up from the gadget lying in his lap. Keith shrugged, attention focused on what Hunk was working on now that he had properly expressed his rage to its source.

_“Okay, hello?”_ Rolo’s panicked voice came out over the speaker; the trio quieted as he continued to speak, words tumbling over each other. _“Nyma’s working on it all right now, I swear! Just, please just, leave us alone.”_

“As long as we see it in the next 24 hours,” Keith said, a smirk on his lips, “Otherwise, well, we’ll get in touch.” With that, he hung up and turned his full attention to Pidge and Hunk. “So what are you guys working on?”

Pidge and Hunk’s smiles only grew. “Something that Allura banned us from doing on the bus because it involves fire and would honestly probably get us kicked out of the hotel if we’re caught.” Pidge explained, pushing her glasses up her nose.

“We already covered the smoke detectors and opened the windows,” Hunk added, mask already flipped down as he worked to get the flame back to life.

“You wanna help,” Pidge asked, already turning back to her laptop and pulling up the house music playlist that had been playing previously. Keith considered them for a minute before shrugging, heading towards the bathroom.

“I’ll stuff towels under the door to keep smoke from escaping and keep lookout.” He called back; Pidge and Hunk merely high-fived as they got back to work.

* * *

 

Lance stared up at the ceiling from his sprawled position on the common room couch, completely in shock at the turn of events from the Balmeran tour. Nyma and Rolo had come out with hundreds of emails between them and Galra, saying that they had been hired to frame Lance for the assault in order to damage Voltron’s reputation, stop the Balmeran Charity Tour, and effectively derail all conservation efforts. They had come clean due to what they called an ‘anonymous persuasive discussion’, and had even donated the second half of their payment to the conservation efforts. Now every news outlet’s focus was on Galra and the conservation efforts for Balmera, and people were flooding out of the woodwork to protest. At the rate everything was moving, Zarkon’s zoning licenses would be revoked, and they’d be kicked off the land. And all of it was thanks to the one person he knew who could have tracked total strangers down without much to go on, who just so happened to walk into the room with her face buried in her phone.

“Hey Pidge,” He called out; Pidge’s head snapped upwards, startled out of her tech world. “I just wanted to say, thanks for saving my ass.”

Pidge smiled, plopping herself beside him. “No problem,” She said, turning back to her phone; Lanc could see it was some mobile game. “But really you should be thanking Keith; he’s the one who demanded I tread the line between what’s legal and illegal.”

Lance blinked, not expecting that. “Wait…Keith?” Pidge nodded, eyes still glued to her phone.

“Yeah, he came to my room while we were at that one hotel. You know, the one that looked like a complete dump on the outside but was kinda nice on the inside? Except for the continental breakfast; that shit was nasty.”

“Yeah yeah yeah, back to Keith.”

“Right. Anyway, he came up to my room looking like he wanted to murder somebody. I assumed you had done something to piss him off, which stunned my because he usually goes to Shiro when he’s upset at you? But then he asked me if I could track Nyma and Rolo down, and after I said I could well, the rest is history.”

Lance nodded, going back to staring up at the ceiling as he processed this information. He remembered that night vividly; his mother had called, hysterical that reporters had harassed his sister Maria at school. It had escalated quickly as he found out that not only had that happened, but reporters knew where his family lived and were hounding them constantly. Then, someone had told his brother to ‘go back to Mexico and rape your own women’; if Lance had been there, that racist would’ve gotten a solid right hook to the face. To top it all off, his youngest sister Allie had asked if Lance had really done everything people said he did; but the icing was that his mom hadn’t blindly defended him. No, instead she had told Allie to ‘think about who Lance is, and if someone like him would do something like that’. That had been the point when Lance began sobbing, stressed and tired beyond the point of caring who in the stairwell heard him. He only just now realized that maybe someone actually _had_ heard him, and that that someone might actually _do_ something to rectify the situation.

Damn, he really needed to go find Keith now and swear to never be an asshole again.

* * *

 

Lance took a deep breath as he stood outside Keith’s door, hand poised to knock. He could do this, he told himself; after all, this is just the amazing Lance going to talk to Keith. Keith who had, with Pidge’s assistance, saved his ass from the bad pressed caused by Nyma and Rolo.

Before he gave himself any chance to overthink the implications of that statement, he knocked on the door. A muffled ‘it’s open’ was heard, and Lance steeled himself as he turned the knob; no backing out now.

Keith was sitting on the couch, book propped open in his hands. He stared at Lance with a raised eyebrow, seemingly confused at why he was standing in his doorway. “What do you want,” He asked, closing his book.

Lance took another deep breath, swallowing what little left of his pride he had after this ordeal. “So uh, I talked with Pidge…” He began, rubbing the back of his neck; that corner of the ceiling was very interesting. “And, uh, she said that…well, that you were the one who got Nyma and Rolo to ‘fess up.”

“Yeah, and?”

Lance felt a flush creep over his face. “And well, first of all thanks and everything, super great thing you did there. But uh, well, I guess…why?”

Keith blinked, surprise flitting over his features at Lance’s question. “Lance you were seriously upset; like hell I was going to let that slide.”

Lance blinked, mind slowly processing everything Keith said. “What?”

Keith tipped his head back in the couch, looking to the ceiling as if it had the answers. “You weren’t yourself Lance, and I just…I dunno, I couldn’t stand seeing you like that.”

“Thought you couldn’t stand me period?”

Keith snorted. “As true as that is, this was different. Someone was hurting my friend and teammate, and I wasn’t going to stand around and do nothing.”

“Wait a minute…” Lance interrupted, a slow smile creeping across his face. “You consider me a friend?”

A sudden sense of trepidation filled Keith at the look on Lance’s face; unfortunately, he always did have a failed sense of self-preservation. “…Yes…” He spoke; his fears were instantly validated as Lance saddled up beside him on the couch, grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

“You, Keith Kogane, think of me, your eternal rival Lance McClain, as a friend?”

“I’m starting to regret answering,” Keith muttered, hoping that would end wherever this was going; Lance however elected to ignore it.

“Aww, don’t be shy,” Lance cooed, slinging an arm around Keith’s shoulders and ignoring the glare he was given. “No need to be tsundere about finally having warmed up to my irresistible charm and naturally fantastic personality.”

“Wha…” Keith’s mouth opened and closed, face resembling a gasping fish. “I am not a tsundere!”

“That’s just what a tsundere would say,” Lance sang, earning a groan from Keith.

“I will personally chain you to a post myself and leave you there.”

“Kinky,” Lance said, winking; he was rewarded by Keith shoving him off the couch and onto the floor. Keith smirked, opening his book again and resuming reading.

“Keith,” Lance whined, “How could you treat your new friend that way?”

“What’s that? I…I-I can’t…I think you’re breaking up.”

Lance huffed, muttering about rude mullets. He stared up at the ceiling, the only noise in the following moments the echoing ticks of a clock somewhere in the apartment and the occasional flip of a page.

“Hey Keith,” Lance said, poking his leg with his foot. Keith gave a grunt, indicating he was listening. “…Thanks. I…It was really nice of you man. I appreciate it.”

“…Don’t mention it,” Keith mumbled, eyes looking down at Lance from the book. Lance grinned as he met his gaze, sending a thumbs up. Keith rolled his eyes, head shaking slightly as he resumed reading.

Lance smiled as his eyes closed, willing to admit to himself that maybe, _just_ maybe, Keith could be a half-decent person when he wanted. Of course, he’d willingly take that thought with him to his grave and never breathe a word to a single living soul. But, a few flattering Instagram photos would certainly be worth a thousand words.

**Author's Note:**

> The Spanish was Google translate, so ya know...


End file.
